We all want our websites to be ranked higher on Google and be more visible — but we have to balance out how much effort to put into SEO without destroying the user experience.

SEO is imperative for your website to get searched on the major search engines but its overuse can also hurt your website. The search engines will select the most relevant websites offered to users through keyword searches. SEO’s purpose is, in part, determining how to tweak a site so it is not only recognized by the search engine spiders but rewarded with a first page view.

This thrust of this article is to depict some common SEO issues and offer solutions so you can maximize your exposure on search.

1. Overuse of Keywords:

This is a common problem and search spiders frown on people who pack their content pages with overused keyword phrases that are favored for search but lessen the user experience. For example:

“…is a cutting edge job search organization that offers a directory of available jobs opportunities, volunteer jobs, holiday jobs and work opportunity jobs both in the United States and abroad. Our jobs directory is up-to-date and is ideal for the student who wants to earn extra money and experience living in another city, state or country while on a gap year, having a career break or enjoying a working holiday or a volunteer job experience for resume building. These job search opportunities go fast, so check our jobs directory daily or weekly for these job opportunities filled with a lifetime of memories…”

2. Avoiding the Use of Imagery for Fear that it Won’t Be Spidered:

There seems to be some confusion about the use of imagery on a website. Images are an excellent way to convey your messages as in “…a picture says a thousand words.” However using imagery without tagging them for SEO is criminal. You want to use every available opportunity to be found on search. Using alt tags to describe your images is not only smart, but imperative.

3. Sacrificing Looks and User Experience for SEO Value:

Again you don’t want to be a content farm, where you have pages upon pages of marginal content that the viewer is not interested in the information. Yes, there is a lot of keyword value in this volume of content, but you need to weigh the user experience. If the viewer goes on your site with a promise of finding a solution to their inquiry or problem and they are met with confusion and disappointment, then what are you achieving in the end. You need to connect with the visitor and reward him or her with an easy to find answer. That’s how you generate further dialogue, leads and ultimately sales.

4. Buying Random Links or Linking to Random Sites Just to Get Link Reciprocity:

It is necessary to get quality links to make your site an authority site but if the page does not call for links then don’t put them in. Google values inbound links, the more links the higher the perceived value of your site. However, these inbound links have to be relevant to the content on your page. If they aren’t meaningful, then the link juice is negligible and could hurt your rankings on Google.

5. Search Engines Don’t Care about Your Branding but You Do and You Want Your Users to Recognize You.

Remember the visitor is a human being, not an alien visitor. They want to have a pleasant visitor experience. They want see a finely branded website with excellent content, easy navigation and be able to make a connection with the site. Therefore branding and structure are critical to the user experience and they will reward you for its quality and credibility.

Take-a-Ways

Quality trumps quantity. Both are valuable, but in the end the user experience is paramount so quality should weigh more heavily than quantity.

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